I’m nuts about metal detecting.
I can’t drive anywhere without thinking “ooh, that looks like a good place!” My equipment is always ready. And when I go, my buddy and I stay for hours.
We find interesting stuff: Boy Scout neckerchief slides, spoons, metal store tokens and sleigh bells. We find old stuff: early American coins, buttons, musket balls, brass barrel taps and lamp parts. And we find personal items: pins, buckles, tools and wire-rimmed glasses. But the thing we really want to find is the daymaker.
It’s the unexpected target. The coolest, the oldest, the one you’d been hoping for. The bucket lister. It’s the target that “makes your day.” My daymakers have been copper toe taps, my first buffalo nickel, an intact brass key, a tombac button with fancy, and a chauffeur’s badge from 1926.
In my author realm, I got a daymaker from our local library’s Director of Adult Services. He sent an innocuous little email that I wasn’t expecting, explaining that he ran a report of books most borrowed at his library since January 1, 2023.
The number one book was No Comfort for the Undertaker.
“Your book has been checked out more than any other book in our collection so far this year,” he wrote. “Second place goes to James Patterson, who, according to Wikipedia, has sold over 425 million copies of his books. Look at you go!”
Now that’s a daymaker!